Change of Venue for 9/11 Trial

The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is abandoning plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, “bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.”

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.

Justice Department officials are studying other locations, “focusing especially on military bases and prison complexes, and no obvious new choice [has] emerged.”